What makes LEGO the most powerful toy brand in the world?

3 December 2018
| Author: Joanne Frearson

Created by Ole Kirk Kristiansen in Denmark in the 1930s, LEGO’s plastic building blocks have been popular with kids ever since. In a market where toys come and go, what is the secret behind its success?

In 2018 LEGO remains the world’s strongest and most valuable toy brand, according to Brand Finance. The company’s 80-year success has been built around the ubiquitous plastic brick, and the endlessly creative ways in which children can play with them. So what makes it so resilient in an ever-changing market?

Katharina Sutch, Global Shopper & OmniChannel Activation Director at LEGO, thinks part of the company’s success is down to its uniquely demanding – and honest – customer base: children. “There are so many kids around the globe playing with LEGO toys,” she tells Business Reporter at the FUTR Summit in London.

“There is so much data out there. For us it is really about listening to our little consumers a lot. This is where LEGO is very different from other brands, because our shoppers are adults [but] our consumers are kids. [They] are actually really hard critics. It’s great. You know when you ask them a question that they will give you a clear answer and direction.”

The company, says Sutch, also takes much of its inspiration and insights from children. Indeed, the toy giant holds its small consumers’ feedback in such regard that last year it held a competition to find a child who could help them develop a new product.

Of course, says Sutch, this doesn’t mean data from adults is not important, as they’re usually in charge of the purse strings when it comes to what toys their children get to play with, and LEGO also wants to better understand their part in the purchasing decision. “We do a lot of insight generation from a shopper point of view,” she explains. “As a shopper, you can have different mindsets, needs and motivations when you are buying toys.”